Nestled in Columbia, Missouri is a mother-daughter owned local business known as Peggy Jean's Pies (PJPs). Mother, Jeanne, and daughter, Rebecca, opened the doors of Peggy Jean's in April, 2014. However, the story doesn't exactly start there. In 1994, Jeanne and her best friend, Peggy, started the original 700 square-foot Peggy Jean's Pies using Jeanne's grandmother's original pie crust recipe. The original PJPs closed its doors after ten successful years when Peggy's health began to decline. Jeanne and Rebecca have made quite the comeback since their 2014 revival of PJPs all while maintaining the integrity of PJPs original pies by using the same pie crust recipe they began with in 1994, made fresh every day. To this day, only Jeanne knows the ingredients.

This creative, feisty mother-daughter team has managed to make quite the stir in and around Columbia with their ultimate goal of #worldpiedomination. "...[World Pie Domination is] our goal... it makes you keep thinking and keep pushing" said Jeanne. What is World Pie Domination, you ask? Well, just what it sounds like. Their plan is to take over the world of pie, one pie at a time.

What we love about Peggy Jean's Pies is the culture they have cultivated. At PJPs you'll immediately notice the open kitchen and an overall homey feeling. Jeanne and Rebecca train pie-naive employees to become pie masters, all while maintaining the integrity and quality of PJPs. At PJPs, they live life together which quickly becomes apparent to their customers, many of which have become personal friends. Pie seems to have a way of bringing people together.

It also becomes immediately clear that their pies are made with loving attention to details. At PJPs they still hand "fork" the pie crusts each day to prevent them from shrinking when they're baked. It's purely a labor of love.

If you're itching for pie now... we have good news. You can check out PJPs menu online. Cassie's personal favorite is Chocolate Bourbon Pecan. PJPs has pies of all different varieties and even sell dough (gluten-free, too!). Each day they have half-priced pies from the day prior, given they did not sell-out the day before. On the days they are closed, their half-priced pies go to Ronald McDonald House, local fire stations, and the like. Now that's something we can get behind. PJPs suggests calling ahead to make sure your preferred pie is available if you have your heart set on something specific. Not local? Don't fret. PJPs will ship your favorite jelly jar pie to your doorstep!

So, we have one question for you: are you ready to help PJPs with #worldpiedomination? Be sure to follow PJPs #WPD blog where they document this journey.